


The Abyss Stared Back

by alchemicalTyphoon



Category: When The Night Comes (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Bad Ending, Character Death, Gen, Original Character(s), Other, Pledge Ending, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21593380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemicalTyphoon/pseuds/alchemicalTyphoon
Summary: The Hunter realises just a little too late they made a grave error in judgement when they pledged allegiance to Harold Addington III. And now there is nothing more they can do but face the consequences.
Relationships: Hunter/August Willenheim
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Listen. I just wanted to write some random angst ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯! This moment just had so much potential ok?

Harry... oh Harry... The Hunter looked down at him. Bloodied. Broken. 

Pathetic. 

To think they'd ever thought this shell of a man could lead the agency. They themself felt nothing when they brushed past August with grim determination and took Harry's head clean of his shoulders with a scissor motion of their short blades. They did however feel the thrum of shock when the reality of their action set into those present. 

They felt the air shift, but held up a hand. To stop August.

"Don't. It needed to be done", they said, voice drained of any emotion. Making their deed sound simple, clinical. A mere calculation of pros and cons that followed as they methodically cleaned the blood off their blades, keeping their back to their... well... they probably couldn't call them 'friends' anymore. Not after this. Not after they threw away everything they had build and had hoped would last. 

They had wanted a home. Just _somewhere_ they could belong. They could remember little more than long stretches of loneliness, of feeling like they had no control over their own life. It was an endless tedium of "Go here. Fight that. Kill this. Obey. Obey. Obey". They were tired to the bone. They just wanted to rest. Lunaris was supposed to be that place. And they ruined it all in a moment of weakness. A moment of trust... 

Once the blades were cleaned and sheathed, they didn't turn around. The moonlight glinted off the pieces of dirty, broken glass crushed during the battle.

That vial... The contents had heightened every one of their senses. And they could smell everyone's fear permeating the frigid air. Even those they thought would at least understand their decision, would know why this needed to be done. Even they had the smell of fear clinging to them. 

Despite all the power they had just been granted, the Hunter had never felt this small, this powerless.

They had hesitated, and it cost them their life.

 _You weren't supposed to fear me..,_ they thought, feeling what was left of their heart break. _This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This wasn't supposed to happen..._

"My mission is finished... I'm... I'm leaving", they said quietly, to no one in particular. 

It was as if life returned. August was the first to react. 

"Hunter", he started, fear making way for fury. "I order you to-" 

They half-turned their head and snarled. The sound deep and guttural, overpowering whatever August had wanted to say. They could see and feel August' and Ezra's magic flare in defense. The other Hunters all took a step back, as did the people they had once considered friends. 

"You. Do. Not. Get. To. Order. Me." Their own voice sounded not like their own. 

They turned away after a while, unwilling to look anyone in the eye anymore. Their hands steadily unbuckled the straps holding their weapons. Letting the blades drop to the ground. Then the armour. And lastly, the purple sash. The one they had been so proud to earn, to wear. But one they knew they weren't worthy of any longer. They gripped the piece of cloth, perhaps in the futile hope maybe it held some answer, a solution to whatever mess they'd trapped themself in. 

Just for a fleeting moment, they blocked everything out, catching a glimpse of what could have been had they not tipped that vial back. If they had just been a little bit stronger, a little bit more trusting in the abilities of their former friends instead of giving in to their own fear of losing what they'd build. They clung to that image in that moment, before letting it go. Everything of their... past... crumbled to the ground. 

"I'm sorry", the whispered, regret clear in their words. "I'm... not a Hunter. Not anymore. You can't command me to do anything now, August. Please. You... you will do better than Harry. Don't let... _this_ be for nothing. I only did what I felt was right..." 

They paused, when they again started feeling how afraid everyone was. A desperate, strangled keening escaped momentarily from their throat... 

"But I think I may have made the biggest mistake in my life", their voice cracking. "Goodbye." 

They marched away. Leaving the clearing. Leaving them. Leaving Lunaris. 

They could sense the disappointment, anger, sorrow, grief, incredulity at what they'd done, all prickling behind them, aimed at them. 

But in the end, nobody followed them. 

Nobody wants _an actual monster_. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the end of the line for the Hunter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some more angst and feels? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

After leaving Lunaris, the Hunter had nowhere to go. Wandering straight ahead became wandering aimlessly.

At first, they would seek the comfort of busy inns. Anything to regain a semblance of normalcy again. They listened to the people's merry-making and laughter, sat with them, drank with them. They stayed away from the creatures who roamed these towns. Who could already smell what they were becoming and did their part in staying _far_ away from them.

As time passed, they would more and more find themself waking up in the middle of the night drenched in cold sweat, feeling things crawling and shifting under their skin. Even as their grip on time slipped, they knew it hadn't been long before the whites of their eyes turned a brilliant red. They took to wearing hoods deep enough light wouldn't reach their eyes, but soon enough, their pale hands became scaled claws, and not even gloves could fool the drunks to sit with them.

The loneliness they felt was worse than during their time as a Hunter. So eventually, they avoided people. It was easy, hiding in dark woods and darker caves. With their senses as they were, they could feel the presence of anyone long before they themself were spotted. There would be other hunters occasionally trying to track them, but before long, even they left them alone.

Sometimes, their wandering would lead them to the things they used to hunt. The ones that weren't to, _couldn't_ be reasoned with. The ones that were a danger to the humans they had sworn to protect when they were younger. The need to protect the humans would always win out in the end, and they'd rid the world of whatever it was that plagued the towns. There was no longer any challenge in what they did. Everything was simply... _weaker_ than they were.

They would always hope there would be cheering when they did deeds like these, like they used to, but all they ever encountered were hushed conversations. Shock. More fear.

"We should alert the Enforcers."

"There's something even worse out there."

"I don't feel safe here anymore."

It was disappointing and they never stayed long afterwards, and many similar incidents later, they stopped lingering after a kill altogether. 

Time didn't seem to matter much anymore. It merely passed, a never ending cycle of sun and moon, life and death, of changes taking place but things feeling the same. Once, their back ached, and undignified as it felt, they took to walking on all four limbs. It felt steadier and was made easier by the changes in their legs and the addition of a long, barbed, serpentine tail loaded with a poison tip.

The scraps of leather they'd worn eventually disintegrated. They paid modesty no mind, as the leather and scales adorning their body was tougher than what they'd left on the forest floor. In fact, it was freeing, leaving them able to unfurl their wings and take to the skies for short distances.

Dignity became another distant memory the day they were unable to stop themselves gorging on a creature they'd found harrassing and killing a human. They ate from the corpse too. It's not like the dead had any use for a body and they needed to eat.

Once, there was a... hunter? They felt like... she?... She felt familiar, and curiosity lead to them staying put. The hunter ignored them. It seemed she had something more important in mind than an elusive thing from the woods. Still, they felt a sense of loss when she was gone.

_Who were you_ , they wondered for some time.

Before even that faded into the background of their slipping mind. 

It wasn't until many, many moons and suns had changed - how many, they didn't know - that they would find themself listless in the snow. The cold didn't touch them anymore, neither did heat.

_It would be a mercy if this is how it ends_ , they thought. Their eyelids closed over their inhuman red eyes. The snow was slowly blanketing their form and they struggled to remember when they'd been treated as gently as the weather was treating them now. There were vague recollections of kisses and caresses of a lover... but they could barely remember the face that they'd loved so much, long ago. Just the faint memory of lavender and ozone dancing at the edges of recall. Only the stab of pain and regret at what they'd done that one night was still very clear, although the why had escaped them by now.

_So weak then, still weak now_ , they mused ruefully, nursing the stubborn wounds that just didn't seem to want to heal anymore. Whatever the creatures were defending themselves with had gradually become more and more dangerous to them.

They had been reckless one too many times and the mistakes had finally caught up to them. Old wounds healed wrong had chiseled their strength, lack of nourishment crumbled their natural resistances, torn wings bound them once again to the earth.

_No_ , they thought, _it had been enough_.

They settled their heavy head on top of their crossed claws. Careful not to disturb the kind snowflakes, their ravaged, but still impossibly long tail curled around them. Their mind started to drift, following a scuffle with sleepy curiosity.

Whatever was fighting there seemed to have trouble. And by the sense of more things prowling their way, they wouldn't last much longer.

_You gave it your best_ , they mused sleepily. _There's no shame in being bested. Maybe we wink out of existence together and I'll show you how to fight as we fade away..._

The tranquility was upset when the _Hunter_ shook their head, sending snow flying everywhere. Every fibre on their body forcefully wrested out of that seductive hole of nothingness.

It was hazy. A promise they'd made long ago, when they could communicate and be understood. 

_I'll always protect you.  
_

Despite how tired they felt, they still plowed through the fast falling snow towards the fight. There was no fighting the compulsion and even the pain that followed every step seemed to be there to urge them forward. They felt an alien sense of concern towards that human presence. Which flickered brightly, but was dimming. Their senses picked up more humans going to the fight, but they were slow. Too slow to get there in time. They lamented the loss of their wings, which could have taken them there in three wing beats. With grim determination, they grit through the dull throbbing pain at the side and sped up.

The delicious aroma of blood hit them before they laid eyes on the clearing. A whiff of the air blowing their way told them the following: 

_Two things had died. Six things still lived, two of them uninjured. The seventh alive was a human, but they wouldn't last much longer at the rate they were blasting their way through their magic. The human smelled vaguely familiar, but there was no time to ponder.  
_

They also smelled that this is where it would end for them.

_It had been a good run_ , they comforted themselves, no time for sorrow.

Even with how weak they'd become and how injured they were, all of them scrambled away from them the moment they barrelled towards what they thought was the leader. It didn't utter anything as they mauled through its throat. They were pleased with the silent death, letting the corpse drop from their large jaws. Under fearful eyes, they lazily licked the blood on their maw and chomped at the air.

At the loud snap, motion returned. While four of the creatures came to them, they were more interested in keeping the other two from advancing on the human. Ignoring the searing jabs at their haunches, they bounded towards the farthest two, clamping down hard and tore through at the shoulder of one with a shake of their head and repeatedly stabbed the other one with the remnants of their tail.

Taking out these two sealed the fate of the last three things standing.

Had they been in better shape, it would have been an easy win. Their reflexes just wasn't what they used to be. They'd become too slow to avoid a stab, then two stabs, then a blow, and another. Something shortened what remained of their once spectacular tail, leaving them to screech in pain. Then something sharp and heavy remained lodged in their back, and it took their all to take out the last thing defying them.

And like that, the scene became quiet again. The snow continued to fall slowly and would eventually cover the gruesome scene they'd helped create. They could barely breathe, let alone stay upright, but something about the human drew them like a moth towards a flame. So they dragged the mess that they had become to the human. Maybe they had some answers for their own puzzling behaviour.

Their vision was missing parts and dimming, thanks to whatever had stabbed one of their eyes, but they could still see the vague outline of the human they'd inexplicably set out to save. _A folly_ , they thought. They'd wanted to end this in peace but had somehow ended up fighting again, like they always did when humans were involved.

Their legs unexpectedly gave out on the way to the human. They uttered a miserable complaint as they fell. What had they wanted to do here anyway?

The wind picked up, carrying with it the faint scent of lavender and a bit of ozone. 

_Oh._

~~~

Once upon a time, they loved an Enforcer. He was overworked, strict, and punctual. But once they'd managed to peel away the protective layers, they'd found lavender magic, tenderness... home.

Once upon a time, they betrayed the world. But the worst betrayal they'd committed that night was to their Enforcer. They thought they knew better than them, but in the end, they didn't.

Once upon a time, they thought they were right. It turned out they weren't and they had to live with the consequences of their deed. They tried to make amends by clinging to their vow of protecting humans, hoping that if they worked hard enough, they'd be forgiven someday. 

In the end, it hadn't mattered. Nobody could truly give them the absolution they needed. 

~~~

They tried to breathe. It hurt more than they remembered it should, and the wheezing and rattling with each laborous breath should have alarmed them.

The sound of fresh snow crunching beneath boots stirred them, but they were too tired to move. A hand hovered with hesitance above them, before it gently patted their once luscious mane, now missing entire chunks of hair, and what remained matted with blood.

The human was talking, but their mind couldn't remember what the sounds meant. They just knew it meant them no harm.

Their dying mind wondered. Had they done enough? Were they forgiven for their mistake? Was this the peaceful end? Was this their welcome reward? Could they go home now? Were they at last allowed to remember that growing scent of lavender and ozone? 

Had _August_ finally forgiven them for their choice? 

_August_. What was that again? 

_August_. That was the name of home. 

_August..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lemme squeeze one last chapter worth of angst mmmkay ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Finn ran ahead with Raven. While time had lost grip on Vampires, forty odd years had left their marks on Ezra, and Piper. They weren't as fast as they used to be. Not even Piper had escaped time unscathed. 

Raven signaled him just as the smell hit him. 

_Oh no.  
_

Multiple sources of blood. They both sped up, hoping they weren't too late... But what they arrived to wasn't what he'd expected. The bodies where strewn across the clearing, some in multiple parts. Thank fuck the snow hid most of the carnage. Finn quickly spotted who he was looking for and relief washed over him when he saw August was still alive. 

Injured and exhausted, but _alive_.

The witch was hanging by a shred of calmness with the head of a large beast cradled in their lap. The sight of it - of _them_ \- stopped both him and Raven dead in their tracks. He didn't want it to be possible, but there under the moonlight and quiet snowfall lay what used to be a friend. 

It was difficult to imagine, but the large pale beast had definitely seen better days. And although they'd become grotesque, an even bigger monster than what Aya had been, it still pained him to see them like that. Finn gulped at the weapons sticking out at odd angles. 

"Finn. Where's Ezra? I'm too exhausted to heal them", August said calmly. The question snapped them both out of their trance. 

"He's on his way", Raven said with an uncharacteristic nervousness in her voice. "Willenheim, could you come over here, please? Away from the teeth?" 

August shook their head, keeping their eyes on the beast. "No. They're injured. I'm not leaving. Not this time. They saved me, punctual as always. I owe them this much."

Finn felt Ezra arrive, his worry and confusion, and then shock and disbelief palpable through their connection. The two humans all ended up staring at the witch and the beast, at the chimera their once Hunter friend had become. 

"Ah. Ezra. Can you heal them? It's. It's-", August's voice starting cracking. "It looks bad. And you're our best healer. So. Ezra. Please." 

Ezra cautiously made his way towards August, whose hands kept stroking the dying chimera.   
"Oh, my friend... _Nothing_ of magic can... touch... them. Not anymore", Ezra said quietly. "They cut themself off when they drank the poison." 

August glowed brightly, briefly. Even though they weren't within his usual range, Finn could feel his anger, disgust, and desperation at the situation. He could feel the moment August broke. 

"There _must_ be _something_ you can do?! _Anything_?!", they raged in despair. "You can't just! Just! Let them die!", the witch continued, pleading. They looked back down, continuing to stroke it. "They were just... protecting me...", they said in a barely audible whisper. 

Finn and Raven were assaulted by another mess of thoughts. They were incoherent, disjointed. Guilt, regret, sorrow, resignation. An incredibly overwhelming sense of loneliness that made both of them take an involuntary step back, away from the source. A flicker of impossible hope and happiness when they picked up August's scent. 

Quickly exchanging a glance with their own hunter, it was clear Piper had felt all of that too in some measure, perhaps even more so. While Ezra didn't feel the full brunt, enough trickled through to alert him. 

He turned to Finn, eyes wide. "Are they-?" 

Finn nodded, astonished. "Yeah. Barely though." 

August felt the change too. The former enforcer whispered their beloved's name in a question as they combed some plucks of mane out of the way. Their former friend shuddered, and weakly opened their eyes, the functioning one having difficulty focusing on August. 

_Dream?_ , he felt, rather than heard, fluttering weakly in his mind. Finn felt like an eavesdropper, and so did Raven, both of them able to pick up the chimera's surface thoughts. 

"Sssh... I'm here", August whispered, choked up. They bend over, awkwardly touching brows. Their friend feebly tried to lean into the touch. 

_Sorry_. 

"I'm sorry for-...", August teared up. "It was you, wasn't it? You were the one keeping everyone safe, weren't you? The agency pretty much fell apart after that day, after we all left, but the nights everywhere felt safer than before."

Despite their condition, there was a sense of accomplishment and pride. Their friend - they had always been their friend, no matter their form - rumbled weakly, but content. 

_Promise.  
_

They blinked their red eye lazily, transfixed on August. Who was combing through the remnants of mane as tears spilled. Their hands moved with a sense of desperation, as if the motion was a spell for their friend's survival. 

_Protect.  
_

Piper definitely felt that. She looked away from the scene, distress, anger, and shame clear on her face. Ezra, ever kind, put a hand on her shoulder. And Piper, maybe because she was getting old, maybe because she was always feeling things deeper, stronger, like all hunters do, Piper clung to Ezra and _wept_. 

Ezra looked at him, tears in his eyes.

Finn experienced brief flashes of thoughts. Images of when the Hunter first stumbled into Ezra's little shop; tired, haggard, and that sense of loneliness of being another replaceable cog in a machine. Ezra watching them befriend him, Alkar, Omen, and even the Aibek boy. Them helping with August's reconciliations; bringing him and Ezra together; Omen telling his witch they'd nudged Alkar and him together...

_We should have made them stay. **We** should have stayed._ Finn could do little but wrap them both in his arms, and letting them cry. 

Their Hunter friend's life was dimming. Finn again felt like an eavesdropper, as he witnessed whatever was still left in the dying husk, still undeniably human, sought out August, trying to form a mental connection that sucked him in as well. 

He felt a turmoil of emotions, supplemented with hazy, memories.

Weariness, when they arrived somewhere, where they were met with kindness and concern rather than orders;

loneliness giving way to a sense of comfort, kinship for a fellow like them, a spark of interest in a snappy, demanding voice, softened with laughter and awkwardness;

interchanging scents of brimstone, petrichor, summer, and incense colouring their friendships as they bloomed; 

a love so deep for a blurry haze of lavender and ozone. 

There was a moment of emptiness, thoughts abruptly stopped. In that void, a gnawing, growing sense of worry, fear, not for themself, but for others. A feeling of dread, of not being enough, of being weak for a moment, and then, the snap of determination, the echo of a pledge, " _... lay down my life... my duty, to protect..._ ", of accepting their life didn't matter, that they were nothing but an expendable cog in a machine created to protect others. The instant shame and regret once it was done; the pain of rejection, and once again, acceptance of their doom. 

Flitting through sensations of becoming something else, something powerful, something to be feared... and the _crushing_ loneliness of it. There was grief and despair, of memories and thoughts slipping away and grasping at straws to hold onto as many as possible, to _not forget everything_. The call of duty as ever present as the love for that slowly, but steadily fading memory of lavender and ozone. 

The last bits of thought were the clearest. Finn felt hopelessness in the snow; he felt their compulsion to protect even though the reason was missing; he felt the grim determination to fight the threat despite the pain; and lastly, that hope, that longing for something they thought long lost, finally returning. 

_August_.

Their acceptance.

Their forgiveness.

Their love.

_At last._

It was barely a whisper, left to drift in the quiet of his mind after the mess of impressions. A single thought: _Home?_

Finn couldn't see their face, nor hear what August said. But he felt a surge of love, happiness, and relief flow through him... and then, nothing. 

Nothing but the gentle snow, and a psionic witch's immense sense of loss. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to yell at/with me! :D! I don't know enough people who love to angst about this game's pledge ending haha ^^.


End file.
